Today marks the one-year anniversary of receiving my work-from-home mandate. The uncertainty over the rapidly spreading coronavirus prompted NMSU leadership to order nearly all university employees to begin teleworking. I wrote about the COVID-19 pandemic in four previous posts, but have not provided an update since last July. As I have been working back on campus in Branson Library since August 2020, perhaps it is a good time to bring readers up to speed regarding the last 7+ months with another installment of the Archivist’s COVID-19 Journal.
Monday, August 3rd saw me back at my office in the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) for the first time in 4 ½ months. When given the option to return to work I felt very comfortable, as I had previously worked in a very secluded and segregated space, a set of circumstances familiar to most archivists due to the nature of our work, and that practice would certainly continue. Branson Library would remain closed to the public for the foreseeable time, with all library services funneled through Zuhl Library, thus minimizing my exposure to the public. My office on the second floor is behind a locked door in a secured hallway, with the two offices further down the corridor remaining unoccupied for the time being, further limiting my sharing of space even with coworkers. The requirement of wearing masks on campus, coupled with good hand hygiene and social distancing in an already deserted building, made the risk of catching the virus at work even lower. I mentally calculated the odds of getting sick through returning to work against my desire to return to the worksite and the collections that I love – and concluded I should switch from my “work-from-home-wear,” mainly shorts and a t-shirt, to wearing pants on a consistent basis again and returned to Branson.
“Disinfected by Facilities” sticker, Branson Library, August 3, 2020
Severely neglected succulents, August 3, 2020
Social media post on closure of Branson Library, August 27, 2020
Working back on campus required numerous adjustments. First, one immediately noticed a campus abnormally quiet and far less active. The foot traffic along Frenger Mall at start of the fall 2020 semester, normally buzzing with anxious energy induced by the kick-off of a new academic school year, failed to materialize. That energy remained behind closed doors with nearly all NMSU classes online or in hybrid mode. I can say I truly miss the background noise of the university environment.
Second, the economic fallout from the pandemic saw a freeze and re-evaluation in university spending, resulting in the unfortunate laying-off of most of the library’s student employees. Although the loss of our student co-workers happened in May, the absence of their labor grew pronounced as reference requests began to flow again with news of our return to campus. Our students are vital in all of the department processing efforts as well as in fulfilling digitization requests. During the first few months back onsite, I digitized nearly 1,000 pages of documents for a California doctoral student, Oklahoma filmmaker, and a Doña Ana County resident – none of whom were able to visit Branson due to campus restrictions.
The third adjustment, directly related to the second, with fewer staff working in the building, reference duties often fell to those who had access to the collections. For the time being, only the department head and I worked in the office daily, with the rest of the staff continuing to work from home, although coming in as needed. As the newest member of the ASC staff, I realized that responding to these reference requests afforded me greater exposure to the collections and expanded my overall knowledge of the library’s holdings, thus exposing me to valuable archival information that normally takes years to accumulate. In working on other’s inquires, I learned about the likes of the Faithists, the writings of Fred Grove, mid-century urban planning in El Paso, the downwinders of the Tularosa Basin, ranching in southern New Mexico, the closure of Walker AFB, and the Southern Pacific Railroad siding at Carne, New Mexico, among other topics.
Fourth, rather than having set open hours for the Caroline E. Stras Research Room, as was the case pre-pandemic, campus researchers had to schedule appointments dependent on staff availability. To visit our research room, one had to possess a valid NMSU ID and agree to follow campus COVID-19 protocols. We removed most of the chairs in the research room, plastered pandemic best practices reminder signs on the walls, placed hand sanitizer and anti-viral disinfectant wipes in prominent places, and assigned patrons to tables to ensure social distancing requirements. While the campus community could still visit, our community users and other scholars had to shift their research plans or delay them until after the pandemic. As an archivist, you love to provide access to those wishing to review materials; turning our patrons away certainly challenged our normal ethics. Access for one patron became so critical to their research project, the person decided to enroll in an NMSU course in order to secure an ID and gain entry to the archives! We continued to work with professors, who requested their students to receive archival instructions from us, but conducted these instructional sessions at a reduced capacity or moved them online to Zoom. Talking in an audible manner through a triple-layered cloth masks at a distance for nearly 30 minutes can be a challenge on the vocal cords.
Fifth, with less staff in the building to notice issues as they cropped up, entropy began to work on the aging Branson superstructure. My first walkthrough of the building produced a request to facilities staff to fix a crack in one of the large, third-story windows facing Frenger Mall, along with the disposal of a dead bat. Poor thing died of dehydration after somehow finding its way into the building. I will admit to being startled when seeing its lifeless body on the tile of the fourth-floor study area. In the lead up to the Thanksgiving holiday, a faulty condensation pump caused a large water leak in the ceiling of the Stras Research Room. The pooling water then proceeded to make its way to the floor below. Miraculously little damage occurred to the collections as we sprang into action deploying containers to catch the destructive water and plastic sheeting to further protect holdings. Still, one could not help but wonder what would have happened had the leak occurred 48 hours later during the holiday break. Yikes.
Dead bat, Branson Library, August 3, 2020
Deserted Frenger Mall, 1st day of fall semester, August 19, 2020
Water leak, Stras Research Room Branson Library, November 24, 2020
Finally, I began to understand the impact the loss of social contact with my colleagues had on my own well-being. Working in a pandemic environment made me realize how much I had taken for granted. Occasionally I would bump into faculty and staff from other library departments, which usually produced a long conversation on how things were going at work and at home as we filled in the pandemic narrative gap. I am thankful to have made friends with many of these people and look forward to the time when we can socialize again. Learning of the losses experienced by coworkers who had family and friends taken by COVID-19 is gut wrenching. The socially agreed upon isolation, the swiftness of the disease, the loneliness of the medical treatment, the uncertainty of the recovery, and the financial impact of this virus has taken a huge toll on all of us.
With friends and family having taken ill even after following CDC guidelines, I feel fortunate to have been spared contracting the disease thus far. After traveling out of state to visit my ailing mother in January, I complied with the mandatory quarantine period upon my return to Las Cruces and went through the testing protocols at the New Mexico Department of Health facility on Solano Drive as a precaution. The ease of registering online, the well-coordinated testing procedures, and rapid response of my test results gave me confidence in the guidance and efforts of our state and local health officials. This assessment was confirmed again when, after registering for the vaccine on the state website, I received my Pfizer shots at the Las Cruces Convention Center. In truth, I have appreciated how seriously the Las Cruces community has taken the pandemic and worked to protect each other by doing the simple things – minimizing travel, wearing a mask when out, and maintaining proper social distance. I have experienced it firsthand when out grocery shopping, walking and jogging in the morning through downtown, going to my annual dental and eye exams, and when donating blood – people are working to limit the spread and want to protect one another.
New vending machines containing COVID-19 cleaning supplies, Domenici Hall, August 24, 2020
Line for COVID-19 test, NM Department of Health, Solano Drive, January 6, 2021
COVID-19 test results via text, January 8, 2021
Library work overall continues despite the pandemic, albeit at a slower pace. The library’s budget saw a 2.5% reduction for the fiscal year, much less than the worst-case scenario for 12%. Still the impact was felt across campus in mid-February when the announced cut of 433 scholarly journal subscriptions, including the Elsevier package, rocketed across campus. The blowback from faculty on this decision included a Faculty Senate Memorial asking that NMSU Central Administration find additional funds to cover library material acquisition and subscriptions. Even the meager budget I receive to purchase special collections publications was cut in half, making it difficult to keep pace with current publications let alone the purchasing of rare works. Budget uncertainty affected hiring within the library as well, as numerous faculty and staff positions in both Zuhl and Branson libraries, including the Dean’s chair, sit vacant.
Still there is much to be proud of in our work, even if hamstrung by funding and staffing issues. The Border Regional Archives Group (BRAG) held their annual Border Archives Bazaar on October 29, 2020 – this time via Zoom and Facebook. I gave a “behind the scenes tour” of the Special Collections during the second half of the four-hour broadcast. In November, the department produced another video, a six-minute introductory film to ASC’s collections and resources, viewable on the archives homepage and the library’s YouTube channel. To help celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, RGHC Archivist Jennifer Olguin and Library Specialist Teddie Moreno created another short film, Extraordinary Women Advocacy Activism and Sisterhood, which premiered later that month.
The Open Stacks approaches its anniversary, having drawn over 2,500 visitors in its first year. My colleague Jennifer Olguin has worked with the Las Cruces Sun News to repurpose blog posts for the newspaper’s website, expanding the blog’s reach to new readers. During February’s Black History Month, staff wrote blog articles on NMSU’s first African American graduate and dean, segregation in Las Cruces Public Schools, and the city’s first African American mayor, and created a new LibGuide – all in conjunction with NMSU’s celebration, coordinated by Black Programs and the Black Student Association. Our efforts continued as well with the Documenting COVID-19 project, with nearly 40 contributors who have submitted poetry, journal entries, creative films, and documentary photography on their pandemic experience. We hope to have the submissions posted to the library’s digital repository in the coming months. Recent media coverage of ASC holdings and work has included:
- A Las Cruces Sun-News piece in August 2020 on the transfer of Doña Ana Sheriff’s Office records to ASC;
- A “Did You Know?” feature in the January/February 2021 issue of Neighbors magazine;
- A KTSM report and a Las Cruces Sun-News article in February 2021 on the papers of women’s rights activist Esther Chavez Cano.
One year into this massive test of our country’s fortitude and there appears to be hope on the horizon. Our collective desire for a COVID-19 free future may be possible, but we still have work to do. To everyone, continue to be safe out there.
Read An Archivist’s COVID-19 Journal, Part I here, Part II here, Part III here, and Part IV here.
Discarded mask, Las Cruces Dam at East Lohman Ave, March 7, 2021
ASC staff occasionally publishes guest posts from former New Mexico State University Library employees. These guest posts help capture the history of the library and department, as well as document the work of librarians and archivists in southern New Mexico. Our first guest post comes from Larry Creider, emeritus professor, who spent 16 years at the NMSU Library, serving as cataloger, special collections librarian, and head of the Archives and Special Collections department.
Brief Biography
I grew up in California and received my BA in history from UC Santa Cruz (1972), Ph.D. in medieval studies from Yale (1979), and my MLIS from UT Knoxville (1982). Worked at the libraries of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (1979-1981), the University of Pennsylvania (1983-1999), and New Mexico State University Library (1999-2016). Wife: Barbara Hanna Creider (m. 1976) and son Benjamin Dean (1987-), who is a lawyer in South Carolina.
How did you get into special collections librarianship/archives?
Most of my library career was spent as a cataloger in academic libraries. After a few years spent as a German language cataloger at the University of Pennsylvania, I found the department was having trouble finding a cataloger to work on a grant cataloging some of the many pre-1800 books that had been transferred from the stacks to Rare Books. I volunteered and spent two years working on that project. I gradually became more involved in rare book cataloging, which I found fascinating. I found myself training and supervising some of our original catalogers in helping to deal with these items. My background as a medievalist helped me with the languages and cultural background needed. At one point, the library discovered that it had no online bibliographic records for its first, second, and third folios of Shakespeare. I was also involved in developing cataloging rules for medieval manuscripts using the standard computer format for library cataloging (commonly called MARC).
Larry Creider, in his office, Branson Library, 2012
How did you come to your position at the Archives and Special Collections (ASC)?
I came to NMSU to be head of the General Cataloging Unit, and for a few years I had nothing to do with early printed materials, although I did work on cataloging rules for medieval manuscripts and a revision of the rare book cataloging rules. When my predecessor who had retired but handled the books for Special Collections retired, I took over cataloging those materials, including theses and dissertations. Later I found myself creating online records for the Special Collection maps that did not have them. In 2007, I began to split my time as Special Collections librarian and as a cataloger and in 2008 moved to Special Collections full time. The position was open, and I was interested in working these books again. This eventually took me out of cataloging.
Tell us about your work and responsibilities in ASC?
From 2007-2011, I was the Special Collections Librarian. This involved selecting materials, both as gifts and as purchases, supervising a staff member for a year or so until she retired and was not replaced and a success of student workers. I was also involved in getting materials to the catalogers and on the shelves. Then there were projects with the New Mexico newspapers and getting them in some sort of order, reorganizing shelving and working with the other units. We acquired a largish collection of books on UFOs and extraterrestrial life and some wonderful early printed books.
Then in 2011, I became interim department head when Steve Hussman left. For a few years, I remained Special Collections Librarian until we were given permission to fill that slot as well as two archivist slots. Obviously, I had to do a lot of learning about archives and the current issues in managing them. The whole ASC space was renovated. Even though most of the effort was handled by Dean Elizabeth Titus and the Associate Dean Cheryl Wilson, office space was created on the second floor, a political papers archive was created with its own space and offices, and Special Collections found itself with less space. During the renovation, all of the people who were working on the second floor and their collections were moved, people to the fourth floor and collections to the second floor of Branson West, which was made closed access. Somehow, we went through the years of the renovation without anyone killing anyone else, and the end solution, while not perfect, has been a great improvement.
After we did a national search and were unable to find a new permanent head, I applied to be permanent department head, and filled that position until I retired. During my final years, we were able to fill some faculty vacancies, so I was able to devote more of my time to running the department, trying to mentor young faculty, and occasionally doing some research.
Addressing the audience during the opening of the Domenici Archives storage, Branson Library, September 2014
What are some of the challenges unique to the collections at ASC?
Under Dean Titus, ASC was given a great deal of support, including financial. This made it possible to deal with some of our problems, most of which are not unique to NMSU. The biggest problem has always been space. It was not until after I retired that a multi-year effort to move theses and dissertations online removed one of the major space eaters. Physical copies of these, which represent copies of the University’s original research since its founding, were growing by about six to seven shelves a year, about an entire section. Then we had a lengthy project cataloging the large collection of dime novels, which took an entire range. The Domenici Papers had to be fitted into about forty percent of the second floor stack space and were a major reason for the renovation. The newspapers had to be re-ordered and gotten under control.
As we did less collecting, more time was spent getting the collection under control. The long-time head of the department built collections, and many of these were unprocessed or un-cataloged due to lack of resources. I commissioned the Rio Grande Historical Collections (RGHC) faculty member and staff to do a survey of its unprocessed collections. As part of that, they created brief records for many unprocessed collections in the Rio Grande Historical Collections. The department’s collection of film and video materials was surveyed to ascertain its physical condition, a major problem on the national level. Work remains to be done conserving those materials. While traditional materials will remain a very large part of ASC unit, the increase of digital materials poses great opportunities and challenges, particularly without additional personal. The issue of the conservation and preservation of digital materials, including documents, databases, and visual materials (LOTS of scanning of visual materials, especially photographs) has only begun, which is unfortunately true on the national level as well. Other issues include adequate statistics since the measures used for the general collections are not very useful for ASC.
The integration of archives and archivists into the library faculty structure has proven difficult. Even with the best will, they professions are different and are developing distinct career paths. Those working with special collections have special needs that have to be communicated, advocated for, and fit into the priorities of the collections which are most used by students and faculty. Sometimes ASC staff have to be encouraged to do outreach and to work continually to improve access.
Preservation and conservation issues, both for digital and for traditional materials, are major issues that have never been adequately funded in any but the largest and wealthiest ASC units.
What was the favorite part of your job?
Dealing with patrons and helping them with their needs. Being able to work to improve relations with other departments. Teaching classes an introduction to archives and special collections was one of my favorite activities, and I was sorry to have to give it up to let younger faculty add it to their portfolios. I loved being able to deal with some of the early materials in the collection. My least favorite part of the job was giving performance evaluations.
What accomplishments or projects are you most proud of regarding your time at ASC?
As I look back, the department went through a lot of change while I was in ASC, pretty much continuously. I am perhaps proudest that I got the finding aids to the Mary Daniels Taylor Durango Microfilm Collections online. I simply worked with Systems people who did the actual work of getting the material on the web, but we doubled the use of the collection, which is one of our great treasures for the history of the Southwest USA. I tried my best to support the staff. We had excellent people when I worked there, and I was able to hire a few more. A retired staff member told me that I was a better person than a department head. I was flattered. Any manager is a small figure in a rapidly moving stream, and what one can do is limited by external and internal constraints. Then you leave, and the water closes over.
Any memorable experiences or funny stories you’d like to share?
I’m sorry, but my mind is blank. Oh, there was the day when the RGHC staff found a flare kit from the Vietnam War in an unprocessed collection. We got the fire dept. and police involved on defanging that one. There were also the cannon balls in the memorabilia collection of former president Hugh Milton, two of which seemed to still have their fuses. We eventually decided they were harmless.
Larry Creider (right) at staff holiday potluck, Zuhl Library, December 2013
What advice do you have for aspiring archivists/librarians?
Be active in professional groups preferably both archives and librarianship, but at least one of them. Be open to change, for it will happen, generally more slowly than its prophets predict. Who thought of the impact of the internet in the 1980’s? If you do not have language or systems skills, figure out how to get them. Learn the history of the book and the history of written communication. If you do not know where you come from, you won’t know where you are going. It really helps if you can get an internship or work as a paraprofessional in a library or archives before you enter the job market.
What are you currently up to?
I am enjoying retirement and doing a lot of reading. I have published two articles on the books and publications of Padre Antonio Martínez of Taos (1793-1867) and am working on a supplement about new materials that have turned up. I am also working on a project on the Commentary on the Catholic Epistles by the Venerable Bede (673-735). Then there is the issue of downsizing my personal library. I enjoy classical music and will get back to the library at St. Albert the Great Newman Parish when the pandemic has settled down.